Spotlight (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | spotlight |
| Original title | Limelight |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1952 |
| length | 132 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Charles Chaplin |
| script | Charles Chaplin |
| production | Charles Chaplin |
| music | Charles Chaplin |
| camera | Karl Struss |
| cut | Joe Inge |
| occupation | |
| |
Spotlight (Original title: Limelight , after the Vaudeville Theaters and music halls still usual spotlight , or the early spotlight from detonating gas and lime) is an American film directed by Charles Chaplin in the year 1952 . He designed melodrama , more tragic comedy than comedy , to pay homage to the London vaudeville milieu in which he began his career.
plot
Similar to a classic opera in three acts, the plot of the film is divided into three parts, which are separated from each other by long interruptions in internal time.
1st part (exposure)
Summer 1914 in London. An elderly man, very drunk, crosses the street and approaches the front door of an apartment building in which he has a small apartment on the third floor. It's Calvero, who used to be an extremely successful comedian, who made his audience laugh with more or less raunchy songs and skits. As he got older, it became more and more difficult for him to establish contact with the audience. So he took up alcohol, of which he gradually needed an increasingly stronger dose. Eventually he was hospitalized with a heart attack. It has been six months since he was released from the hospital and he has not yet found another job. The whole industry agrees that Calvero is no longer useful as a comedian.
On the door to the apartment on the ground floor a smell of gas. Through a peephole in the door, he sees a young woman lying unconscious on the bed. It's Thereza Ambrose, called Terry, who has her own problems. She is a ballet dancer at the Empire Theater in London, but had to take a break due to rheumatism. Since she cannot do her job as a dancer with rheumatism, out of desperation and because she found her life meaningless, she swallowed an overdose of pills to kill herself.
Calvero drags Terry out of the room and calls a doctor. The doctor explains that attempted suicide is a criminal offense for which Terry will be jailed if someone learns about it. So the doctor and the comedian take her to Calvero's apartment. Calvero sells his violin to get the groceries Terry needs. Back at the apartment building, Calvero meets his landlady, Mrs. Alsop. He learns from Mrs. Alsop that Terry's apartment on the first floor is already re-let. The landlady soon discovered that Terry was now living with Calvero, where she was lying in his bed. To prevent Mrs. Alsop's apartment building from getting a bad name, Calvero suggests that Terry be considered his wife. It remains with this language regime.
Terry and Calvero start a conversation. He had first thought that Terry was a street whore and had a sexually transmitted disease. When he found out about the rheumatism instead, it seemed like a harmless thing to him at first. A few days later, however, Terry says that she can no longer move her legs. The doctor diagnoses that Terry's leg paralysis is not physical but psychosomatic . To find out the cause of Terry's psychosomatic paralysis of her legs, Calvero asks her questions about her past. He learns that Terry has a sister who used to make money as a street whore. With this money the sister supported Terry so that Terry can afford training as a dancer. In the company of a friend, Terry found out by chance what kind of work her sister does for money. Terry was shocked and ran away crying. In the Empire Theater, just before the rheumatism problem began, Terry met her friend again. By reminding Terry of her sister's job, her own job as a dancer was suddenly linked to the idea of "dirty money." Terry has therefore developed an unconscious aversion to her job. This caused the psychosomatic paralysis of her legs. Terry wants to prevent herself from continuing her profession as a dancer.
To help Terry, Calvero uses several examples to present her with a different worldview. With this worldview, it is important not to think about the meaning and purpose of life, but to regard life, even if it is sometimes combined with suffering, as a particularly valuable end in itself, otherwise only to think of the present and the requirements of the moment to orientate. In practical terms, Calvero does exercises in dancing with Terry, with the result that after a while Terry can at least stand on his own two feet a little and take a few steps. Terry clearly feels at home in Calvero's apartment.
Calvero then receives a telegram from his agent, John Redfern, asking him to visit the agent in his office. In the office, Calvero learns that Redfern has agreed to work in Middlesex for a week . The fee is low and Calvero has to refrain from using his own name. But the commitment is an opportunity for a new beginning and Terry, whom he tells about it, is also happy - especially that Calvero has not touched alcohol since the beginning of their acquaintance and that he also wants to perform in Middlesex without alcohol. The appearance in Middlesex turns out to be a complete fiasco, yawning spreads in the audience. More and more people are leaving the room. Calvero's contract is terminated and he sees himself completely at the end of his career. As Terry Calvero reminds her of the philosophy with which he helped her himself, and as she gets more and more energetic about it, she gets up involuntarily. While Calvero is apparently left with nothing, Terry can suddenly walk again. In her joy, Terry can't take it anymore in the apartment. Together with Calvero she takes a long walk through the night. On a bench on the banks of the Thames, Terry Calvero explains that everything is fine for the two of them together. Terry would find new jobs and then take care of both of them if necessary.
Part 2 (developing the conflict)
Six months later: Terry is now again employed as a dancer in the ballet in the Empire Theater, while for Calvero nothing has happened so far professionally. The next day Terry has a trial dance in front of the Impresario Postant and Calvero has an appointment at the Empire Theater because of a supporting role as a clown. When Terry comes home to tell Calvero about his appointment, he is drunk. He has brought three street musicians into his apartment, with whom he makes music. When the street musicians are gone, Calvero tells Terry that he is no good and that he would consider staying overnight under a Thames bridge soon. Terry, who refuses to accept that, helps him take off his clothes so he can go to bed and sleep off his drunkenness.
The next day, Calvero accepts the offer for the small role in the Empire Theater, although he receives only a small fee and wants to forego the use of his name. Terry is about to try out dancing. Terry is accompanied on the piano by the young American musician Neville. She had met Neville before and told Calvero about it in the first part of the film. At the time she was an employee in a shop where Neville used to buy music paper. Since Terry Neville saw that he had little money, out of pity she gave him extra sheet music and sometimes extra change. Neville had the idea that Terry was in love with him. The same idea stuck with Calvero when Terry told him earlier about her encounter with the young musician. While Terry assured her that she was by no means in love, that she had only helped the young musician out of pity, Calvero prophesied that Terry would meet the young musician again but would not recognize him because he now had a beard. Later Terry will sit on a balcony with the young musician. There he will tell her that he loves her and she will tell him that she has always loved him. Absolutely nothing of this prophecy comes true by the end of the film. In the manner of old age, Calvero sticks to it until the end of the film, to which Terry keeps saying that he is wrong.
Terry has a brilliant success at the trial dance. She is engaged by Postant as the new prima donna of the ballet in the Empire Theater. Calvero, whom Terry later meets backstage, grudgingly admits that Terry is a real artist. Terry explains that she loves him and that she has always loved him since she first met him. Terry then proposes marriage to Calvero. Regarding Calvero's objection that he is an old man, Terry says she loves him and that is all that matters.
As her first role as the prima donna of the ballet, Terry appears in a two-part play as Colombina , who is dying in the first part. In addition to Terry as Colombina, her lover Harlequin and various other characters appear, including Calvero as one of the befriended clowns. In the second part, in the cemetery, Harlequin tries to bring Colombina back to life with a magic wand, which he fails to do. However, ghosts appear who explain to Harlequin that he does not have to cry because love that is not tied to one place is everywhere. At this moment Terry appears as Colombina with a big solo.
The premiere of the ballet is a huge success for Terry, although shortly before her appearance on the solo in the second part she loses her nerve and says that her legs are paralyzed again. Calvero cures her by very forcefully slapping her on the face and then sending her on stage. At the banquet following the ballet, Terry notices that Calvero is missing. He went to a pub to get drunk. He tells a messenger from the theater who is looking for him that he has already gone home, so Terry doesn't have to worry. Terry then also leaves the banquet. Neville takes her home in a car. In front of the apartment building's front door, Neville Terry makes a declaration of love. He convinces Terry that she loves him too, while her love for Calvero is only pity. Terry said about Calvero: “It's more than pity. Something that I've lived towards, grown towards. It is his soul, his kindness and his sadness. Nothing in the world will ever separate me from it. ”Calvero, lying drunk on the floor on the other side of the door, overheard the conversation.
The next morning, Calvero goes through the reviews in the newspaper, which extensively praises Terry. Terry then comes back to her plan to marry. She is not comfortable with fame and would rather live a humble but happy life with Calvero. Calvero thinks that's wrong because Terry would then - as he thinks - live like a nun and waste her youth. He blames himself for not having the strength to leave Terry long ago. Terry, who can't understand what suddenly got into him, gets a shock. She assures him of his love. In the afternoon, Calvero meets in front of the one colleague he knows from before. The colleague says he was asked to do the new ballet. The clown who plays there is bad. He should therefore be replaced by the colleague. After this new defeat, it is clear to Calvero that he must leave Terry in order not to be a burden to her any longer. When Terry comes home that afternoon, Calvero is already gone. He left a suicide note telling Terry that he left her.
3rd part (final)
Some time later: Terry first searched all of London to find Calvero. When this was in vain, she was sick for a long time. She then went on a successful tour of mainland Europe. She has thus become an internationally recognized star as a dancer. In London she is still the prima donna in the ballet of the Empire Theater. Neville, who had to join the military because of World War I , has come to London on vacation, where he met Terry on a regular basis.
Calvero earns some money as a street musician, along with the three musicians he once brought into his apartment. They play on the street in front of the entrance of a pub without an audience. When they are done with their music, Calvero goes into the pub to ask the guests for a donation. Among the guests is Neville, who recognizes Calvero. When Calvero was still sitting with Neville, the impresario Postant came into the bar. Postant gives Calvero some money. He is surprised that Calvero has become someone who has to make music on the street in order to earn money. Calvero says calmly: “The whole world is a stage, and this is the most justified place for it.” Before Calvero leaves the restaurant, Postant says to him: “Why don't you come to my office?” Calvero refers on his agent as well as on the fact that he is supposedly fully booked with engagements.
Terry learns from Postant and Neville that Calvero is a street musician and goes to see him. With his disappearance, Calvero had forced her to grow up a bit, even though she didn't want to. In the process she lost something that will never come back. She declares her love for Calvero again and wishes him to come back to her. You will do anything to make him happy. He admits that Terry would keep her promise, but sees himself on a different path. When Terry then tells that Postant wants to organize a gala in Calvero's honor, in which everything that has rank and name in the art world will appear alongside Calvero, Calvero initially refuses because he considers Postant's idea to be a handout that he does not want to accept . But what he wants is an opportunity where he can show what he's made of. He's also come up with a new number in which he wants to appear with a friend. The friend plays the piano and Calvero violin. Together with his friend, Calvero wants to show something like a musical parody.
On the day of the gala, the Empire Theater is sold out. Terry and Postant have taken precautions so that the evening will definitely be a success. This includes that not Calvero, but Terry is announced on the facade of the theater. Terry also sat down with the claqueurs and gave them a detailed explanation of the places in Calvero's lecture that made them laugh. She agrees with Postant that Calvero is no longer who he was in his best times. So that Calvero doesn't notice it, he and his friend get the star wardrobe. He is also assured from many quarters that everything is exactly as it was in the old days. Shortly before the start of his performance, Calvero takes another sip of alcohol, although his doctors have expressly forbidden him to do so. When Terry walks into the cloakroom and notices that he has drunk again, and when she asks him whether success on stage is worth risking his life for, Calvero says that he is not interested in success at all but just to avoid another failure.
On stage, Calvero first performs two of his older solo numbers. The audience goes along with a lot of laughter. At the end of the second solo number, the stage manager demands that Calvero take a bow on stage and complete his part of the gala. Two dozen other artists would be waiting for their performance. After Postant has spoken a word of power, Calvero and his friend are allowed to begin the musical number. Calvero has come up with a number of gags for this. First the two instruments are tuned with exaggerated clumsiness, and the strings break. After solving this problem with great effort, Calvero misses his violin. The violin is broken because Calvero's friend stepped on it with his foot. But Calvero pulls a second violin out of his pocket, with which the musical performance can begin. The end of the lecture is a piece at a very brisk pace, in which Calvero falls from the stage into the orchestra pit and there into the kettledrum. While he is being carried off the stage in the kettledrum, he continues to play.
Calvero receives a lot of applause, as in his prime. But he has a lot of pain in his back and says he has injured his spine. In order not to spoil the evening, he can be carried onto the stage again in the kettledrum. He then tells the audience that it was a really great evening for him and his partner. He would have liked to continue, but got stuck. Calvero is examined in the props room by a doctor who has been summoned and diagnosed a new heart attack. The dying Calvero is optimistic and announces that he wants to go on a tour with Terry. When he sees Neville, he comes back to his earlier prophecy. Terry reaffirms that it is Calvero she loves dearly. She is then called on stage for her own performance. Calvero just wishes he could see Terry dance one more time. He is carried to a suitable place in the scenery and dies at the beginning of their dance. The last pictures in the film are reserved for Terry with her dance.
Making the film
The film was produced by the company United Artists, which Chaplin founded in 1919 together with some artist colleagues in order to be independent of the production operations in Hollywood. Filming began on November 19, 1951 and was completed on January 25, 1952. Filming was preceded by a period of several years, during which Chaplin prepared for the film. After the filming was finished, music was added to the film. As an exception, the music for the ballet in which Terry dances as Columbine was written before. For the ballet scenes in the film, the American ballerina Melissa Hayden was hired as a double for Claire Bloom. In the opening credits of the finished film there is a copyright from 1951 by Celebrated Films Corp. specified. The copyright was transferred to Roy Export SAS in 1952.
The film was shown for the first time on October 16, 1952 in London, in the presence of Chaplin, who was on a promotional tour to England. In the United States, where Chaplin had become an undesirable person for political reasons, the film was shown in New York on October 23, 1952 . A broad audience in the US only saw the film here in cinemas 20 years later. The premiere in Germany took place on September 24, 1954. With well over two hours, it is Chaplin's longest feature film. He made some minor changes after the release, such as cutting a scene with an armless friend named Claudius (played by Stapleton Kent ), who lends him some money in his need.
Chaplin's preparations for the film include several fragments that may have been intended for a planned novel entitled Footlights . They were only found in Chaplin's estate more than 30 years after Chaplin's death in the Cineteca di Bologna and have been published since 2014. The fragments were typed and handwritten by Chaplin.
In the fragments, the prehistory of the ballerina Terry and the clown Calvero in particular is clarified. In comparison with the information in the film, some differences can be seen. In the fragments, Terry is not called Thereza Ambrose, but Terry Ambrose. She has two sisters who died by the time the plot began in the film. In contrast, Terry only has one sister in the film, Louise, who emigrated to South America. Calvero, in the fragments, wanted to be a musician in his youth. Because of the poverty of his family, the money was not enough to buy an instrument. As a next plan, Calvero wanted to become a romantic actor in the theater. He was convinced that he was the best actor of his time. This plan failed because Calvero was too short and because he had an uncultivated pronunciation. So Calvero, actually against his will, took up the profession of comedian. It was his problem from the start that he had trouble establishing contact with the audience. In a similar way to the film, Calvero becomes addicted to alcohol. He dies in the same hospital as Chaplin's father.
Additional preparations for the film included writing the script and setting up the sets in the style that was characteristic of Chaplin's childhood and youth in London. The preparations may have taken about 3 years. Several scenes were deleted from the material that was created for the finished film during the shooting. This includes a scene in which Calvero meets armless Claudius, who can play the violin with his toes. Calvero is supported with money by Claudius. By eliminating this scene, a logical gap has been left in the finished film. At the beginning of the film, Calvero sells his violin so that he can have money to pay for the groceries Terry needs. In a later scene he comes into his apartment and brings the violin back with him. Since he had not earned any money by then, he must have used the money received from Claudius to buy back the violin. An original list of actors shows that there must have been a short scene in which Terry can be seen as a child with her sister Louise. This scene is also not included in the finished film.
The film's opening credits indicate that the music was composed by Chaplin and arranged by Raymond Rasch and Chaplin. When the music won an Oscar in 1973, Larry Russel was named as a composer alongside Chaplin and Rasch. Much later, however, it became clear that Rasch only worked as a piano player for Chaplin and that Russel was not involved at all in the composition of the music. In several interviews, Russell Garcia described how the music really came about. Garcia's statements are credible because there is a photo that shows Garcia in collaboration with Chaplin at the time in question. An analogous description of the collaboration with Chaplin in the creation of music is also available from David Raskin. Raskin was involved in creating the music for the film "Moderne Zeiten". This film also states that Chaplin composed the music.
Chaplin's own part in the music in his films consisted in the fact that he had concrete ideas about what mood the music should express for the individual scenes. He also thought up individual melodies or approaches to melodies. Since he could not read or write notes, he sang the melodies or the beginnings of melodies to a musical assistant or he played them on the piano. This was fixed in notes by the musical assistant. The musical assistant then composed a score that matches the length of a scene and Chaplin's information about the desired mood. In the next step, Chaplin listened to the result. If Chaplin was not satisfied with the result, the musical assistant corrected his score or composed a new score. After several repetitions of the process, a piece of music was created that Chaplin agreed to use. It could take several months to get there.
If this process is described by the fact that Chaplin composed the music, it is based on an idea of composing which in any case does not coincide with what is usually understood by the term composing. With the usual concept of composing, this activity essentially consists of finding notes that match a presented mood. Chaplin did not solve this problem. Rather, he left the solution of this task, and thus the composing, to others. The mention of Larry Russell in connection with the Oscar may have been due to a misunderstanding. Garcia's first name Russel was confused with Larry Russell's last name. Rasch and Russel were already dead; and Chaplin was in a condition due to his age in which exact information could no longer be expected from him. According to Garcia, the conductor Keith Williams, who was involved in the music for the film, apologized to Garcia for the misunderstanding after receiving an Oscar.
backgrounds
Chaplin described the decline of artists as he himself saw it as a young man. That's why he settled it in London just before the First World War. Of course, it was shot in America. In the character of Calvero, whom he played himself, he put memories of his own father, in Terry he often referred to his mother or one of his childhood friends. This went so far that Claire Bloom should wear the same clothes as the latter. When Calvero returns home dejected, unsuccessful and dismissed from a previously long-awaited engagement by Middlesex , Terry now dramatically urges him not to hang his head and to believe in himself, as he did with her before . During this appeal, she can again stand and walk unaided. In a documentary, Bloom stated that Chaplin had prepared her for this dramatic scene by making her cry through accusations and disapproval in a previous rehearsal, which he would never have otherwise done. Even today she is amazed at the expressiveness that she achieved in this scene as a young actress at the age of only 19.
Spotlight is a far cry from Chaplin's tramp films in tone. Although they always showed deep melancholy , the humor of The Great Dictator and Monsieur Verdoux was far more bitter and pessimistic. The limelight pervades a quiet humor, but this refers to the charm and age wisdom of Calvero, who realizes that his career and his life are coming to an end. Chaplin's slapstick interludes are limited to a few scenes, such as the flea circus with the imaginary fleas Phyllis and Henry and the final number with Buster Keaton as a pianist-violinist duo fighting against the perils of the objects. In front of the basic mood of melancholy, fears and worries, no more scenes with unclouded humor and naive zest for life appear.
Chaplin's relationship with his audience is also addressed in this film. After the first movie scenes, the old clown wakes up from a nightmare in which, after the roaring applause for a humorous stage scene, he has to realize that he had only appeared and played in front of empty rows of chairs. Calvero later told Terry that while he loved the audience applause, he still feared it because it was "like a headless monster" and would therefore be easy to steer one way or the other.
Reviews
When it was published, the spotlight received very different ratings from critics, probably also because Chaplin was suspected of communism at the time. On the one hand, the film was sometimes criticized as "not funny", on the other hand, it was said to have an "intoxication of the heart and a largely planning mind" (quote from Die Zeit ). Meanwhile, the opinion of critics about the film is mostly positive, at Rotten Tomatoes it has a very good rating of 97% based on 29 reviews. The lexicon of international film called the film “touching, spooky, resigned and in places theatrical”.
Awards
- 1953: British Film Academy Award for Best Newcomer ( Claire Bloom )
- 1973: Oscar for best original music for Charles Chaplin, Raymond Rasch and Larry Russell
literature
- Charles Chaplin, David Robinson: Footlights with the world of limelight. (Cardboard picture book), Cineteca di Bologna, 2014, ISBN 978-88-95862-82-8 .
Web links
- The spotlight in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Vincent Bmn: Charlie Chaplin in the spotlight . In: The time . No. 43/1952.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chaplin was familiar with the form and structure of a classical opera in three acts, as it was one of his plans in old age to write an opera himself.
- ↑ Quoted as a translation of the English original: “ It is more than pity. Something I've lived to it, grown to. It is his soul, his sweetness and his sadness. Nothing in the world will ever separate me from that. ”In the German version it says in the same place:“ It's more than pity. Maybe even more than love that draws me to him. It is his soul, his wisdom and his goodness. I never want to part with that again. "
- ↑ Quoted as a corresponding translation of the English original “ All the world is a stage, and this one is the most legitimate. ”In the German version it says at the same point:“ The whole world is a stage; and it doesn't matter what kind of backdrop you appear in. "
- ↑ See extras on the Arthaus DVD
- ↑ a b Charlie - the life and work of Charles Chaplin. (OT: Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin. ) Documentary, USA, 2003–2007, 127 min., Written and directed by Richard Schickel.
- ↑ Vincent Bmn: Charlie Chaplin in the spotlight . In: The time . No. 43/1952.
- ↑ Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Spotlight. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 29, 2017 . "Spotlight" at two thousand and one